My Gaming LifeThe Early YearsMy earliest memories are of playing Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly, Cluedo, etc.Growing up my favourites were Stop Thief, Pay Day & Computer BattleShip, all of which I still have.In high school I played a bit of D&D.

The Later YearsEventually I got married & for each of our early anniversaries I bought one of the Milton Bradley type of games in the hope that this was something we could do together. None of which really hit the mark. I still have them all, but they are all sitting on top of the games cupboard, unplayed.

My Birth in Euro GamingMy first encounter with Euro gaming was Diplomacy, which left such an impact that I refused to play any further Euro games for nearly 2 years.

Eventually some friends dragged me out of the house & I found my self, in the back of a car, being driven to play a game I'd never heard of called Settlers of Catan. The drive was a longish one & I can still remember one of the guys attempting to explain the game & me being completely confused. Eventually we arrived & after a bit more explanation, this time with the game components, which added something to said expanation, the game began. It was great & I had a great time, helped by the fact that I won (still not sure if this was because my friends were being kind to me). The following weekend, my wife & another couple were going away. I asked my friend if I could borrow Settlers. He said yes & so it was taken away & played. It was still great fun & I was hooked.

My GamesThe first game I bought was Munchkins. It looked fun & in many ways I thought that all I had to do was get it on the table & it would be a hit. This turned out to not be the case.

I was a little dispondent & in analysing what had happened, I realised that I hadn't done my homework & really wasn't in a position to be able to sell the game. Next time, it would be different.

It was around this time that my friends told me about a site called BoardGameGeek. I logged on & have done so pretty much every day since.

I was looking for game number two & wanted it to be a hit. I looked at the games rankings & found that a number of the top games were already owned by the guys I played with, but noticed that no one owned Power Grid (game 2 at that stage). After a bit of research on the Geek, I went & bought it. I remember getting it home, opening the box, setting out the components & getting out the rules to read. I was at a loss. All the information that is required to play the game was there, but the order in which it was written was confusing. It took me a number of reads before I started to understand what was going on. After a few days of coming back to the game & how I could sell it to my gaming friends, I decided that what I needed was a script, that was properly ordered, that I could read off. To this end I created my first player aid & uploaded it on the Geek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/32681/power-grid-playe...). It has been updated a number of times over the years, as those who are more experienced with the game have offered their thoughts. It is my highest ranked entry on the Geek with 314 thumbs, the number 1 file for the game & the 15th most popular file on the site (I'd like to thank the members of the academy...).

Me and the GeekI still very much have that aim to ensure that I am able to sell my games to the guys & so, to that end, I create a lot of player aids for the games I buy & they all get uploaded on the Geek. I currently have 42 files uploaded.

Of all of the thumbs I receive, the ones I like the most are those I get for files. They take a considerable amount of time to generate, but files, in general, don't get the love they deserve. I think that the problem is that files only get looked at and assessed when the game is going to be played. By that time it is easy to forget to give them the merit they deserve. Thumb a file today!!!

ThanksAnyway, my thanks to anyone who has bothered to read this.Thanks to God for the fun of gaming.Thanks to anyone I've played with.Thanks to the game designers & publishers - what would we do without you?Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to thumb one of my files. It makes my day.Thanks to those who take the time to load their content.And finally - a huge thanks to all those who keep this site running. I know that I feel lost when I try to log on & it turns out that the site is down for maintenance.